TOWN WATCH
EAST ORANGE – Two separate shootings two days apart left a Roselle woman dead and at least three public schools in close proximity to each other locked down.
ECPO Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force detectives, as of press time, are investigating the death of Janill Perez, 35 since Nov. 15.
East Orange police officers found Perez with multiple gunshot wounds on the 100 block of Springdale Avenue at 12:55 a.m. that Wednesday. Perez, who was rushed to Newark’s University Hospital, was declared dead at 1:40 a.m.
Public Safety Director Maurice Boyd and Police Chief Phyllis Bindi have meanwhile added extra patrols along Lincoln Street between Springdale and Park avenues since Nov. 13. The patrolling includes patrolmen on an around-the-clock beat among four blocks.
The four block area includes East Orange Campus High School, the Wahlstrom Academy and the Hart Middle School Complex. Someone had fired four gunshots near one of the schools at 12:05 p.m. and fled. The three East Orange School District buildings were locked down that afternoon while EOPD officers conducted a field investigation.
“Although this (Nov. 13) incident didn’t involve our schools or our students, it doesn’t diminish the severity of the crime,” said Mayor Theodore “Ted” Green. “We want our residents to feel safe in all areas of our city no matter what time it is.”
NEWARK – It is now left for the Central Planning Board here at a near-future meeting to decide whether the proposed 46-story Newark Summit Tower is too tall for the Four Corner Historic District.
Newark Summit Tower is the latest of several new residential/commercial skyscrapers that are either being built or proposed to be built downtown.
The twin tower Halo, for example, is going up on the former parking lot at 289-301 Washington St. Those towers are to top out at 38 and 42 stories. Newark’s tallest building, the Newark National/National Newark & Essex Bank building at 344 Broad St., has stood at 43 stories since 1930.
Developer KS Group, who has received Newark Historic Preservation Commission recommendation, wants to build NST at 202-206 Market St. at where a four-story Victorian mixed use residential/commercial building and the two-story Manning’s clothing store stand. Both of those properties, if not mostly vacant, had been long-closed and up for sale as developable properties.
NST, as proposed before the historic commission, would top out at 46 stories, easily eclipsing two century-old office buildings at Broad and Market streets to the proposal’s west. The Firemen’s Insurance Building, for example, is 16 stories tall.
The commission approved NST – on condition that it stands at 43 stories – equal to the Newark National Building.
IRVINGTON – Patrons of the Irvington Public Library may want to pause here at D. Bilal Beasley Civic Square to thank the late Dr. Albert Frederick Gaal, 93, who died in Oldwick Nov. 7, for his contribution.
The IPL dedication plaque in its lobby listed Dr. Gaal as President of its Library Board of Trustees during its 1964-67 construction. The township native and 13-year optometrist had shepherded its funding drive. He also was a committee chairman that brought improvements to Irvington General Hospital in 1961.
Gaal was born in IHS Feb. 15, 1930 to Dr. A.F. Sr. and Bernice Gaal. He attended the Berkeley Terrace and Clinton Avenue schools before the family moved to Maplewood’s 25 Hickory St. to attend Columbia High School 1944-48.
The CHS Class of 1948 graduate went to study optometry at Boston’s Franklin & Marshall College and the Penn State College of Optometry. Dr. Gaal, Jr. OD served in the U.S. Medical Service Corps in Frankfort, W. Germany 1954-56 before moving to 41 Washington St. here.
Dr. Gaal shared his father’s practice at 960 Springfield Ave. before starting his own civic and political life 1960-73. He became a member or officer of the local Lions Club, Jay-Cees, Chamber of Commerce, among other posts. Mayor William E. Lovell appointed him to the IPL board in 1964; Mayor Harry Steveson appointed him onto the Irvington Board of Education in 1968 and as an at-large councilman in 1970.
Gaal won his formal election in 1972 but, citing “business pressures,” resigned May 1, 1973 and moved from 260 Park Place to Oldwick. He continued his OD practice there for 50 years while joining the Tewksbury Historical Society and was president of the local Early Ford V8 Car Club.
Daughter Marcie Metzler and grandchildren Dr. Antionette Martin, Albert Metzler, Taylor Gaal and Katherine Gaal are among his survivors; wife Dorthea and son William predeceased him. A visitation was held Nov. 14 at Peapack’s Bailey Funeral Home. Memorial donations may be made in his name “to your favorite charity.”
ORANGE – A party of eight sat in Mayor Dwayne D. Warren’s City Hall office waiting room for nearly two hours Nov. 8 in a desperate bid for alternate housing.
Maguedala Filocsaint brought her five children, nephew and her own youngest child with her at 10 a.m. that Wednesday. They carried luggage, poster board signs, and a duffel bag. That bag carried two years of code violations, apartment photos, court decisions and eviction notices.
Filocsaint, 41, told a reporter that she and her oldest son had made a final plea before the City Council, including department heads from the Warren Administration. They said that her South Ward apartment at 756 Vose St., after their three years there, had become uninhabitable.
She had presented photos of collapsing ceiling tiles, roach infestation, inoperable plumbing and electrical issues. They have shown copies of code violations that the building superintendent and/or owner had received. She has withheld rent in the hope of getting those violations corrected.
None of the sitting Council members commented after listening to the Filocsaint’s appeal in Nov. 7’s hearing of public citizens. West Ward Councilwoman Quintavia Hilbert had placed a phone call to her.
With a 9 p.m. Nov. 8 eviction lockout notice in hand, Filocsaint and her party made one last plea. Neither Warren nor his secretary were present that morning. Deputy Planning Director Chris Mobley arranged to have her speak with Warren over the phone but in private.
Filocsaint left Warren’s office with what she said was the address to the Essex County Division of Welfare’s Temporary Rental Assistance office.
WEST ORANGE – The New Jersey Department of Labor, on Nov. 9, announced that their longest-serving employee, Hester Davis, 90, of West Orange, had died on Sept. 29.
Davis, whose last job was as case worker at the DOL’s Youth One Stop Career Center in Newark, had worked for the department for 52 years. Her influence, said mourning relatives, colleagues and friends, had spread among other “Local Talk” towns.
Born Hester G. Reid into a family of 12 in Newark on June 23, 1932, she and her family were members of the city’s Wells Cathedral. The family moved here early; it is not clear whether father James Reid, Sr. ‘s death and mother Mary Reid’s marriage to John Walker was a factor.
Reid became a West Orange High School Class of 1950 and Newark’s Arts College graduate. She took several jobs before landing at NJDOL, including Chock-Full-of-Nuts and Bell Telephone’s Western Electric. It was at Western Electric where she met co-worker Joshua Lee Davis, Jr.
Reid and Davis married in 1951. They stayed in West Orange to raise the future Deborah Davis Ford, Valerie J. Brown, Joshua Davis III and Shannon Davis Pickens. Hester Davis, who participated in the 1963 March on Washington and other Civil Rights Movement activities. joined the Department of Labor in 1978. Later on, she taught art and crochet at the East Orange Civic Center.
A deacon at East Orange’s Park Avenue Christian Church Disciples of Christ Church, Hester nursed her beloved James, Jr. until his 2021 death. Seven grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and sister Ruth Veney, along with her three daughters and a son, are among her survivors.
Martin’s Home for Services, of Montclair, posted Davis’ obituary Oct. 7 and made her funeral arrangements.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – It appears that another person who was involved in the two recent mishandled student incidents in five months at the South Orange-Maplewood School District’s Montrose Early Child Development Center, as of Oct. 26, has taken a penalty.
The SOMSD administration had posted a “Help Wanted” advertisement for Montrose Principal. The posting for the 12-month position will be up “until filled.”
SOMSD posts an “immediate job opening” for Montrose Early Childhood Center Principal. The position includes a state principal’s certificate, experience as a building principal and passing a U.S. citizenship and criminal background check. The successful candidate will answer to the schools superintendent – who is currently interim super Dr. Kenneth Gilbert.
Whoever gets the job to build a team and lead the Pre-Kindergarten student body, teachers and staff will be succeeding Interim Principal Maureen Davenport, who was appointed June 1 in the wake of then-Principal Bonita Samuels’ taking a leave of absence.
Samuels took the leave and a teacher’s aide eventually resigned after the latter was accused of shaking an autistic boy by his legs for 15 seconds March 27.
Then-schools super Dr. Ronald Taylor, on July 20, said that a Montrose paraprofessional had allegedly mishandled a student July 18 – which happened on Davenport’s watch. There was a joint SOMSD. South Orange Police Department and New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency investigation, like on March 27, but its findings have not been publicized.
BLOOMFIELD / GLEN RIDGE – Neighbors on both the township and borough sides of Bloomfield Avenue are wondering whether construction activities at 667 and 669 Bloomfield Ave. will extend to 675-99 Bloomfield Ave.
Work on converting the former bank at 667 Bloomfield Ave into a walk-in emergency care center, for example, appears nearing completion. Although CityMD Urgent Care has missed its “Summer 2023” grand opening, parking lot and other exterior work on the former DeWitt/Sovereign/Santander Bank may give it an opening during the Year End Holidays season.
Next door at 669 Bloomfield, the former house that is now space for Aroma Spa and three other tenants, as of press time, has had a utility pipe replaced and its parking lot repaved.
Action, outside O’Boyle Landscaping vehicles leaving or re-entering the former Sacred Heart School parking lot, remains almost glacial at 689 Bloomfield at best.
First Class Learning Center, on Sept. 1, had left the century old, three story building for a floor of another parochial school at St. Francis Xavier Church in Newark. Sacred Heart and St. Francis Xavier are Archdiocese of Newark parishes – the latter turning over the deeds of SHA and Nardiello Hall at 14 State St to Sacred Heart Parish.
Mayor Michael Venezia and the Township Council, on Nov. 8, 2022, passed an ordinance making SHS, Nardiello Hall (aka the original Sacred Heart Church) and their parking lots rezoned as “non-condemnable areas in need of redevelopment.” The new designation may allow a 2021 “conceptual” plan for a five-story apartment building there to be reconsidered.
Whatever is proposed for 675-99 Bloomfield Ave. will require notification of residents and/or property owners within 200 feet of the property – which will include those in Glen Ridge.
MONTCLAIR – Last rites for James Eason, 80, were held here at St Paul Baptist Church Nov. 14. Eason, also known as “Jim,” or “Jimmy” and as a Montclair African-American Heritage Foundation co-founder, died here Oct. 29.
Eason was born here on Nov. 15, 1943. The Fourth Ward native – except to play Sunday touch football on Staten Island and for his Vietnam War experience as a helicopter pilot – was a lifelong Montclarion.
The future “Mr. Montclair” was a Montclair High School scholar-athlete, making the football and track teams. He co-founded MHS’ “Rites of Passage” program and was a Montclair Cobras coach.
He, his plumber father, housekeeping mother and two siblings lived on Maple Avenue and were promoted from Glenfield Middle School. Eason himself was a school teacher the first two years back from Vietnam before working for IBM.
Eason participated in Montclair Gateway to Aging in Place, the Senior Citizens Advisory Committee and the July Fourth Committee. He was a frequent presence on Montclair sporting event sidelines and a regular of the Glenfield Parkhouse-Wally Choice Community Center’s Do Drop Inn.
Former Mayor Robert Jackson, Police Chief Todd Conforti and several past and present Township Council Members came to the St. Paul’s service to speak and pay tribute. Mayor Sean Spiller and the Council approved a proclamation celebrating Eason’s life and contributions.
BELLEVILLE – There will be a residential building to go with the gas-and-go Quick Chek on the School 1 site block and Premier Developments, as of Nov. 16, has had its site plan application approved.
A majority of the Belleville Planning Board approved Premier’s plans for a four-story building housing 40 dwelling units. Eight units will be two-bedroom apartments and the rest 32 single-bedroom apartments.
The apartment building would be similar to the nearly-completed Essex apartments on 102 Washington Ave. Premier, of Englewood Cliffs, was that project’s primary contractor.
Those voting to approve the development included Mayor Michael Melham. Councilman Thomas Graziano did not attend the planning board session and therefore did not vote.
Premier had hosted “A Better Belleville 2022” cocktail party as a fundraiser for that spring’s candidates Melham, Graziano and Naomy DePena. A majority of participating Belleville voters re-elected them to their respective mayor and at-large council offices that May.
While Graziano either abstained or were absent from Premier’s related votes, Melham and DePena – while on the Township Council -had approved Premier’s designation as developer for 272-76 Washington Ave., better known as the Irvine-Cozzarelli or “Sopranos” Funeral Home and here.
